by Natalie Ann
“I told them it wasn’t the case. They don’t think that of you now. They are just protective, which it sounds like your family is too. I could take insult over everyone saying there is something wrong with me for being single at thirty-six. Maybe I just haven’t found the right woman rather than being a workaholic.”
“We know the second part is more the truth as you’ve pretty much admitted it,” she said.
“Fine. I haven’t even been looking for the right woman. And when women are with me and start acting like they are ready to settle down, it just makes me go in the other direction.”
He could see he’d hurt her with those words but he wasn’t lying either. “So you are just out for fun?”
“Yes. I mean no,” he said. “I’m not the same person I was before I moved here. I wasn’t ready to think of anything other than my career. But I’m in a different point in my life and I know there is more than work.”
“I’m not looking for a man to take care of me,” she said.
“I know you’re not. I also know that at your age, you aren’t looking for someone to just get off with either.”
“So I’m old now?”
“Holy cow. You’re defensive. Is that a flaw?” he asked, grinning, trying to joke, anything to lighten the mood.
“Fine, I’m defensive. Here is the deal. I’m getting up there in age. I’d like to settle down at some point. Most women do. I’d be lying if I said no. But I’m not looking for a man to take care of me and not looking at him to be my husband when I meet him the first time. Not even a month into dating.”
“But you want someone that might be thinking along the same lines as you at some point.”
“Yes,” she said. “So since this came up, we might as well address this now. Do I want you to tell me we’ve got a future together with ten kids and a white picket fence? No.”
“Ten kids?” he said. “Even I know you can’t have ten at your age.”
“Now you’re trying to be cute. It’s a statement.”
She was standing now and just staring at him. He was wondering how the hell wanting to see her turned into this.
“Fine. A year ago, I’d tell you marriage and kids hadn’t really entered my mind. Where I lived and how I worked, it just wasn’t the lifestyle. But I don’t have that life anymore and I’m here and I met you and it’s crossed my mind more.”
“What has?”
“I’ve never thought that I wouldn’t have a family someday,” he admitted. “I just always knew there’d be time. It’s different for men than women.”
Until he passed out in a restaurant and realized he was wasting his life. For what? The next dollar? The next title, goal, or personal reward? Stupid things.
“It is,” she admitted. “So you’re saying the possibility is there if you find the right person? I’m not asking you if I’m the right person. I’m just asking about possibilities. The same goes for me. I have no clue if you’re that person for me. It’s too new to know that.”
Why was he bothered that she’d said that? That he might not be good enough for her?
Then he had to get it out of his head. They were having an argument of sorts. They were clearing the air. He shouldn’t take it personally even if he was.
“Yes. The possibility is there. Just like you. If you’re asking me if I’m going to say, no, I don’t want kids or marriage. That isn’t the case. I’m not looking for it to the point it’s on my checklist that you seemed to think I lived by.”
No reason to say at one point he had.
“Okay. The same thing here. I don’t want you or your family to think I’m seeing the clock ticking and I’m rushing to find a man to marry and give me kids. It’s not that. I’m not someone to rush into things just to say I had it.”
That made him feel a little bit better. Jet was on the floor now playing with his toys and he stood up and pulled her into his arms. “This wasn’t the conversation I was hoping to have when I asked you to stop here, but I guess it’s a good thing to get it out in the open.”
“Did we just have our first fight?” she asked.
“I’m not one for losing my temper and I think you’re the one that was more angry than me, but it does seem that.”
“That wasn’t much of a temper, so I guess you might not have one. Do we get to kiss and make up now?”
“That had been my plan when you stopped over. Not the making up, but the kissing.”
“Just kissing?”
“Maybe a bit more,” he said, picking her up and carrying her to his room. At least it looked like the night was going to end better than the day started.
17
His Own Thing
A month later, Caden was in his office going over the surveys that had been sent out to staff. He had them organized and sorted into questions, groups, positives, negatives, and changes to be made.
Though they were done anonymously, most didn’t care how they answered and he was at least able to figure out what group had the biggest issues.
No surprise it was the financial planners that John oversaw. He also oversaw the investment brokers, along with having his own clients.
Either the guy was in over his head, or just plain lazy.
Caden was thinking it was a combination of both.
When Colleen knocked on his door, he nodded her in and waved for her to shut the door. They’d met two other times in the past two weeks. She was still holding things back but giving him enough to go by.
“Hey, Caden,” she said, her smile big and toothy. She had on a shorter skirt than normal matching the tight sweater dipping low. What he didn’t care for was in the past few weeks her clothing had gotten more and more provocative than when he started.
Not every day, but the days he was going to have some interaction with her. He was reading between the lines and not liking what the story was saying and he knew he might have to address the narrative at some point too.
“Colleen. Have a seat.”
She did, not even adjusting her skirt, which if he looked was almost exposing her crotch. He wasn’t looking. He had no reason to, not when he had what he wanted in his life already.
Sarah and he seemed to be getting along just great after their little tiff on Easter. They’d put it behind them and had no issues since.
They talked or texted daily. Saw each other usually once, sometimes twice during the week, and then spent Friday and some Saturday nights together at his house.
As far as he was concerned, this was the longest and only relationship he’d ever had.
And though he worried when they talked about futures and kids or marriages, he realized he wasn’t nervous or scared over it, but rather playing things out in his mind more.
What he needed to do first, where they needed to be. How they were going to get there.
A checklist.
Shit. He still did that and should stop, but some things were just too hard.
But just about two months of knowing each other and dating less wasn’t enough for him to jump into anything serious like the talk they’d had on Easter.
“How was your weekend?” Colleen asked.
She always wanted to talk about his personal life and though he was trying to be open, he wasn’t giving as much information and he knew most of the office wanted it.
“Good. Spent a lot of time outdoors with Jet and walking him around the development.”
“How is Jet doing? Getting big? Got some more pictures for me to see?”
She leaned forward, his eyes moving fast to his phone and not to the cleavage showing. Even though he didn’t want to hand his phone over, he did because the alternative was having her come closer into his space. “Here you go,” he said opening one up of Jet.
She pulled it out of his hand and looked at the puppy lying on his back sleeping, paws up in the air and bent. Jet had no shame letting it all hang out, kind of like Colleen at the moment.
He heard his phone beep with a text while it was in Colle
en’s hand and hoped to hell it wasn’t from Sarah. “Who is Mia?” she asked.
He reached his hand out. “My sister.”
“So not a girlfriend?”
“I don’t think my sister would like to be thought of that way. Nor do I discuss my personal life or relationships in the office.” He tossed his phone back and decided to get to the reason for this meeting. “So how did the last staff meeting go with John?”
“He canceled it on Friday.”
He wanted to grind his teeth but didn’t. He’d told John and the other two senior leaders that they should be holding weekly briefings. Finding out who has questions, concerns, or things to report. They should be helping each other and staying in contact. The other two supervisors were doing it without any problems.
Not John. This was the second one he’d canceled in three weeks. “What was the reason? Did he say?”
“Just that he was busy. He sent out an email with a few topics on it that we wanted to discuss and just answered them without us giving feedback.”
“How come everyone keeps going to you with these things and not me?” he asked. Colleen was the one requesting these meetings. He wasn’t going to turn down anyone asking to speak to him at this point, but soon he was going to have to start directing them back to their supervisor.
Unfortunately the problems were with their supervisor. He didn’t remember all this shit going on in Manhattan, but then had to remind himself he didn’t pay attention and just did his own thing.
“I think some people are intimidated by you,” she said. “I’m not. I find you pretty easy to talk to.”
She was smiling at him again. He was starting to wonder if she volunteered to do it. He’d known a lot of women like her. He’d worked with a lot.
Those that thought they got ahead by sleeping their way to the top. But since she hadn’t made any advances toward him other than a little bit of over-friendliness, he wasn’t jumping the gun.
“I would like others to feel that way too. I’ll send out an email letting them know they can schedule time with me if they’d prefer.”
“You don’t like talking to me?” she asked, almost putting a pout on her face and it took a lot of restraint from him to not roll his eyes. He might not get angry or have a temper but he could be sarcastic.
“I have no problem talking to anyone,” he said. “But I don’t like always getting information third person either. It’s better from the source. So you told me he canceled the meeting and answered questions via email.”
“Yes,” she said. “I can forward it to you if you want.”
“That’s not necessary. I’m putting all the information into spreadsheets and getting ready to analyze and address it all.”
“You’re pretty methodical,” she said. “I bet a lot of women like that.”
And there was the first comment crossing the line. “We’re talking about work,” he said.
Her smile dropped and she frowned. “Sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it but just a little joking.”
“That’s fine,” he said. “I’m just reminding you we are meeting about work. I value your input; it’s been very helpful. Don’t think otherwise.”
This time her smile was back in place. “Thanks. Anyway, I’ve got a few other ideas of things we could do in the team. I wrote them down.”
She pulled a piece of paper out that was printed to hand to him, but he stopped her. “You can email it to me. I’m not big on paper notes.”
“Got it. Richard always wanted everything on paper. I suggested these to him before but with one foot out the door, he wasn’t inclined to make too many changes.”
“Then send them to me,” he said, “and I’ll look them over. Anything else?”
“No,” she said. He could see she didn’t want to get up, but he was keeping this businesslike and if that was all the business she had it just proved to him there was more on her agenda than she was speaking. All of this could have been done via email.
“Thanks. I’ll send out an email to everyone soon regarding another meeting with each group and we’ll go from there.”
Colleen got up and opened the door, then slowly adjusted her skirt to pull it down a bit, and walked out leaving it open. He could see John standing there off to the side of Melanie’s desk. He made eye contact with him, then frowned.
Caden picked his phone up when it went off again with a text from Mia, read and responded back on the question she had for a case, then tossed it aside and went back to work.
It wasn’t even twenty minutes later that Melanie was in his office. Good grief he was never going to get anything done.
“Yes?”
“Can we talk for a second?”
“Of course.”
She went in the hall and looked around, then came back without shutting the door. “John was standing at my desk when you were in here with Colleen. He was looking for you and I said you were in a meeting.”
“I saw him there when Colleen left. If he wanted to talk to me so badly, he could have come in here.”
“Well, he wasn’t so happy to see Colleen come out of your office. His face got red and he walked away.”
“Did he say why?” he asked, but was pretty sure he knew the reason. He was positive John thought Colleen was ratting him out. Which in a way she was, but these were legitimate issues and concerns too.
“No. But I just heard from his assistant.”
“Becky?” he asked, knowing the rumor chain was building fast in this office.
“Yes. Becky just sent me an email that John came back and said how Colleen walked out of your office adjusting her skirt that she spends a lot of time in there with the door closed.”
He kept the anger from filling his face. He wasn’t about to lose his mild temper or show any reaction at all and pull more grapes from the vine. “John should come to me if he has concerns. There is nothing inappropriate going on in my office. It was strictly work. Maybe if he spent more time on his job and less worrying about others, there wouldn’t be a need for his staff to be in my office.”
Melanie laughed. “I like you. Richard would have gone right into John’s office and started a pissing match with him and then put him in his place.”
“So John has a habit of jumping to conclusions?”
Melanie put her head down and then walked back out to look around, then returned. “Colleen does have a reputation.”
Ah. Now he got it. It wasn’t his business if Colleen had something going with Richard or any other man in the office. “That’s her choice and her business. If her work is done and not affected, then I don’t care what she does outside the office.”
Melanie angled her head. “It wasn’t always outside the office.”
“I know what you’re saying. Rest assured it’s not happening here. And that is all I’m going to say about it.”
“You don’t have to justify anything to me,” Melanie said.
“But I think I do. I think you want that or you wouldn’t have told me.”
“I was just warning you. I don’t know what is going on with John, but he was always skating on thin ice. He’s unhappy he didn’t get your job. He and Richard butted heads and I think he believes Richard put a bad word in for him. And I hate even saying that. I try not to gossip and don’t want you to think that I do.”
Caden wasn’t sure what to think. “I appreciate the information. As I told Colleen, I’d rather hear things from the source and not third person. So you can pass that on to whoever you want.”
She smiled. “I think I will. I bet it put a wrinkle in her agenda.”
“Her agenda is her own and not shared,” he said and then went back to work when she walked out.
When his phone went off this time, it was Sarah on a break asking how his day was going. You don’t want to know, he typed back.
His phone rang in his hand next and he liked that she would call him when that happened. As if she knew he might need to talk when most might just ignore it.
“Hello,” he said. “Don’t you need to get back to a patient?”
“I just got on break. What is going on with you?”
“Not much. Just one of those days where everyone has an opinion.”
“You know that old saying. Opinions are like buttholes.”
“Yep. We all have them and they can stink from time to time.”
She laughed. “Just time to time?”
“Why are we talking about this?” he asked, laughing. She could make him laugh at the oddest of times.
“No clue. It just popped in my head. I’d rather hear you laugh than say you are reaching for the antacids.”
He stilled, not sure where that comment came from. “Why do you say that?”
“It’s a joke,” she said. “Geez, Caden. You really are out of sorts today. People normally comment on their job giving them heartburn or headaches. Reaching for antacids or aspirin.”
“Oh,” he said. “Nope. I try not to let too much get to me anymore.”
“Anymore?” she asked.
Damn it. She always read between the lines or caught him off guard. It’s almost like she was looking for it and he had to remember that. “We’ve all had times in our life where our jobs can get to us,” he said quickly.
“Very true. I’ve had my days. Not so much here anymore. I like working here. Everyone is great. It doesn’t even bother me when I get hit on anymore.”
“You’re being hit on at work?” he asked, not liking the sound of that.
“Are you jealous? You did it.”
“I did,” he said, not addressing the jealousy comment. He couldn’t remember if he’d ever been jealous in his life before.
“And I picked you over anyone else. You should feel honored.”
He could hear the humor in her voice this time. “I do. How about you honor me with your presence later for dinner?”
“Are you cooking? I like when you cook. I can’t believe I landed a man who likes to cook. What a lucky girl I am.”
He laughed. “Just remember how lucky you are.”
